Mauro Murgia

Athletic performance and recovery–stress factors in cycling: An ever changing balance

Abstract We sought to examine whether the relationship between recovery–stress factors and performance would differ at the beginning (Stage 1) and the end (Final Stage) of a multi-stage cycling competition. Sixty-seven cyclists with a mean age of 21.90 years (SD = 1.60) and extensive international experience participated in the study. The cyclists responded to the Recovery–Stress Questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-Sport) and rated their performance (1 = extremely poor to 10 = excellent) in respect to the first and last stage. Two step-down multiple regression models were used to estimate the relationship among recovery (nine factors; e.g. Physical Recovery, Sleep Quality) and stress factors (10 factors; e.g. Lack of Energy, Physical Complaints), as assessed by the RESTQ-Sport and in relation to performance. Model 1 pertained to Stage 1, whereas Model 2 used data from the Final Stage. The final Model 1 revealed that Physical Recovery (β = .46, p = .01), Injury (β = −.31, p = .01) and General Well-being (β = −.26, p = .04) predicted performance in Stage 1 (R2 = .21). The final Model 2 revealed a different relationship between recovery–stress factors and performance. Specifically, being a climber (β = .28, p = .01), Conflicts/Pressure (β = .33, p = .01), and Lack of Energy (β = −.37, p = .01) were associated with performance at the Final Stage (R2 = .19). Collectively, these results suggest that the relationship among recovery and stress factors changes greatly over a relatively short period of time, and dynamically influences performance in multi-stage competitions.

Quantitative assessment of gait in elderly people affected by Parkinson's Disease

Assessment of gait abnormalities in individuals affected by Parkinsons Disease (PD) is essential in evaluating the disease progression and the effectiveness of pharmacologic and rehabilitative treatments. However, in the clinical routine qualitative and subjective methods are often employed to this aim, despite the availability of sophisticated equipment able to supply accurate and detailed quantitative information. In this study, we propose the use of motion capture systems based on optoelectronic stereophotogrammetry to investigate the main spatio-temporal and kinematics parameters of gait in a cohort of 28 individuals with PD of age > 60. In particular, we aimed to describe the gait kinematics on the basis of concise measures (Gait Profile Score, GPS and Gait Variable Score, GVS) obtained from a quantitative three-dimensional analysis of gait. The results show that peculiar features are identifiable, especially in terms of functional limitations of hip and knee joints and confirm the validity of the GPS approach to describe the deviations from a physiologic gait pattern. Such method might be very useful in helping clinicians to detect even subtle changes in gait patterns (that would be impossible to observe with other techniques) consequent to either pharmacologic or rehabilitative treatments.

Impact of a TV-based Assistive Technology on Older People's Ability to Self-manage Their Own Health.

Nowadays, special emphasis is being focused on involving people on their own health and care. The use of digital technologies in the home-care management process is increasingly contributing to the maintenance of quality of life and preservation of functional independence in older adults. There is a huge number of available m-health applications for self-tracking health parameters, but the majority of them are inconsistent with the needs of older adults who do not currently use technologies such as computers, smartphones or tablets. The aim of this work is to present a pilot study, which included 19 older adults, that was conducted to objectively measure the effect of a TV-based assistive system on the improvement of older adults’ activation levels about self-management of health. The correlation with the usage of specific digital services provided by the system was also investigated. The results reveal how the impact is limited by the aspecific nature of the intervention with respect to the participants’ health condition. At the same time, they are encouraging and indicate that there is the potential for the system to impact on older people’ self-management skills.